May 02, 2014 01:07 PM UTC

Post story exaggerates GOP unity this election cycle

• 4 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

I was all set to write a blog post this morning about Scott Gessler saying on the radio that his Republican gubernatorial opponents are all losers, including Mike Kopp who, Gessler said, presided over the Republicans' disastrous legislative-election collapse in 2010. Gessler told KNUS talk-radio host Jimmy Sengenberger a couple weeks ago:

“If you want to have the same results that we’ve had in the past, just do the same thing… I’ve won a state-wide election. You know, Tom Tancredo is a good man, he has not won one. Bob Beauprez is a good man, he has not won one. Mike Kopp is a good man. When he ran the state Senate Majority Fund, which was the 527 to support senators in 2010, we didn’t win any of the competitive races then either. I think we need to stop looking to the past and looking instead to the future.”

But then I saw Denver Post reporter Lynn Bartels' article about all the "unity" among Colorado Republicans this election cycle. Bartels reported:

Although there's a four-way race this year for the GOP nomination for governor, [GOP State Chair Ryan] Call & Co. so far have done an effective job cajoling the candidates to aim their potshots at Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and not each other.

I thought, "Huh?  What Tea-Party planet have I been on, to have missed this alleged unity? Tom Tancredo, who’s the GOP front-runner, is arguably the face of Republican dis-unity in Colorado. He’s repeatedly bashed by Republicans, even in The Post (by former Colorado GOP Chair Dick Wadhams), and Tanc wastes no time fighting back, also in The Post, beginning with the line, “Asking Dick Wadhams' advice on how to win Colorado elections is like asking Barack Obama's advice on how to balance the federal budget.” He’s constantly telling KNUS' Peter Boyles that Ryan Call wishes he'd disappear. Before he left the race, Sen. Greg Brophy was in attack-a-fellow-Republican-a-minute mode, saying Tancredo is weak on guns and is focused mostly on writing books. Gessler, he said, has ethics and budget issues. "You look back at the Holtzman campaign and the damage done to Beauprez at this time — Both-Ways Bob and all that stuff," Bartels told me, acknowledging that Brophy was "the most vocal." "Where is Beauprez-Holtzman? You have to make things relative to 2006. This would be July in 2006 right now. And it's nothing like it was. I mean, Beauprez was so damaged by Holtzman."

"I realize you've got the two Jeffco races involving Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and all that, but I expect that," Bartels continued. "It's not news to me that the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is involved in a primary. It's going to be below-the-belt torture. But it is news to me when Dave Pigott gets 45 percent at the assembly and jumps out."

Bartels has a good point. It could be worse. But still, aside from the GOP Senate primary, if you've been observing Republicans fighting in the trenches, "disunity" is still mostly the word that comes to mind, and Bartels should have toned down the unity theme and provided some examples of infighting in her piece.